Increases in auto loan debt and credit card balances offset a decline in mortgage debt to leave total borrowings of U.S. households roughly unchanged in the second quarter, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said Tuesday.
Household debt rose by $2 billion in the second quarter to $11.85 trillion, the smallest increase since the second quarter of 2014, when debt levels declined, according to the New York Fed’s quarterly report on household debt and credit.
Auto loan balances logged the biggest quarterly increase since 2005, rising 3.9 percent, or $38 billion, to $1.01 trillion, the highest level since the survey began in 1999. Credit card debt rose 5.1 percent, or $34 billion, from a year earlier, marking the fastest annual pace of growth since the second quarter of 2008.
The level of overall household debt was $221 billion higher than a year earlier in the second quarter of 2015, though it remains 6.5 percent below the peak of $12.68 trillion reached in the third quarter of 2008, the report showed.
The report is based on data from the New York Fed’s Consumer Credit Panel, a nationally representative sample drawn from Equifax credit data.
Mortgage debt fell by 0.7 percent, or $55 billion, from the first quarter, according to the report. Still, $466 billion of new mortgages were originated from April to June, the most since the third quarter of 2013. About 95,000 individuals had a new foreclosure notation added to their credit reports, marking a new low in data going back to 1999.
“Persistently tight underwriting standards imply that new mortgages continue to be originated predominantly to the most credit worthy borrowers,” said New York Fed Senior Vice President Wilbert van der Klaauw in a statement accompanying the release. “The low rates of delinquency and new foreclosures reflect the higher quality of outstanding mortgage debt and improved economic conditions.”
Student loan balances increased $1 billion from the first quarter to a new high of $1.19 trillion. The share of student debt at least 90 days delinquent in the second quarter rose to 11.5 percent, the highest since the final three months of 2013.
© Copyright 2026 Bloomberg News. All rights reserved.